| For
the most recent information on teacher salaries, please see Teachers
Unions & Salaries in School Talk. Also, see The
Truth About Teacher Salaries.
SIDEBAR
During the past 2 years the average salary increase for our teachers has been 3.5%--not a
big difference from the ones reported here, but years of small differences have added up
to a big difference that amounts to millions of dollars.
For the 1998-99 school year, our teachers started at $31,398/year. The high salary
was $67,383. Compared to the lows of $25,500 and $27,180, and the highs of $52,095
and $58,260, as reported in the nearby articles for next year's teacher salaries in two
Ohio school districts, our salaries are high, and when multiplied by our 200+ teachers,
amount to over one million dollars per year in added salary expenses.
Although it is nice to pay teachers high salaries, businesses are reluctant to locate in
areas with high rates of school taxation. School districts without a solid business
base often deteriorate.
Moreover, my unscientific survey of hundreds of schools leads me to believe that, in
general, many schools with high teacher salaries have relatively less money to spend
on technology , library materials, and other resources that help students learn better,
faster, and more independently. Higher salaries may also mean fewer teachers, in
some school districts.
The issue of salaries is complex, and ultimately political. 75% of our voters believe teachers should earn, on average,
$47,000/year. That's about $5000 less per year than the current average. Given
our tax base, the age of our population, and the amount of wealth and income behind each
student, teacher and administrator salaries clearly deserve close scrutiny.
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Hamilton school board OKs pact
Teachers receive three-year deal
Tuesday, August 03, 1999
By Ruth E. Sternberg
Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch Schools Reporter
Hamilton school district teachers will get pay raises of 2.8 percent this school year,
3.1 percent next school year and 3 percent in the final year of a three-year contract
the school board approved last night.
A majority of the 127 dues-paying union members had voted to accept the agreement, which
is retroactive to July 1 and will expire June 30, 2002.
School district Treasurer Scott Osborne estimated the total cost of the salary increases
over the three years at $806,425.
Pay for a beginning
teacher will be $25,500 a year during the first year of the contract. Top pay -- for a
teacher with a master's degree and 25 years of experience -- will be $52,095.
The previous contract provided annual pay raises of 4 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent.
The package also includes an increase in what the district will pay for health insurance,
Osborne said. The district now pays about 78 percent of the premium. It will pay 80
percent of any increases in premiums.
During the first year of the contract, the district will pay $8.80 per person to $24 per
family monthly for insurance, for a total increase of $42,000, Osborne said.
Other contract provisions include:
Nonunion members must pay annual dues of $500 beginning Jan. 1. Twenty-eight of 155
teachers, psychologists, nurses and librarians in the district are not members of the
union, said Robyn Burris, a Hamilton Township Middle School science teacher and contract
negotiator,yet are entitled to grievance hearings and all other protections, except for
the use of union lawyers.
School administrators must post all positions as they become available. In the past,
Burris said, job openings weren't posted.
A committee of staff members will be set up in each of the district's four school
buildings to look at discipline policies and determine if changes are needed.
Last night, Hamilton Board of Education members also talked to Paul Wenning, project
manager for the Franklin County Health Department, who recently inspected the district's
buildings and found problems with mold, moisture and chemical disposal. Board President
Sandra Bloom said she realizes that the middle school, in particular, has a ventilation
problem, especially since it was sealed to accommodate air conditioning that never was
fully installed.
Bloom said she wants to develop a better training program for maintenance employees and
revise the maintenance schedule with new attention to health matters, such as mold, that
are relatively new in districts across the county.
She also said the district needs to find money to fix major problems. Hamilton does not
have a levy for permanent improvements or a fund to pay specifically for such things as
building repairs.
The district's $18.6 million general fund for the coming school year has $300,000 for
repairs. But it is going fast, Osborne said. For example, he said, $160,000 is being spent
to buy two portable classrooms to relieve overcrowding.The district received $500,000 in
state money for other projects, chiefly to fix the roof on the middle school, replace
boilers at South Elementary and fix restroom plumbing.
**************
Pickerington board, teachers agree to pact
Thursday, July 01, 1999
By Julie R. Bailey
Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch Schools Reporter
Teachers in the Pickerington school district will receive pay raises of 2.25 percent in
each of the next two school years under a new contract that runs through June 28,
2001.
The Pickerington Education Association and Pickerington Board of Education approved the
contract Monday. The old contract expired yesterday. Under the new agreement, a beginning teacher will be paid
$27,180 for the 1999-2000 school year. The top pay --for a teacher with a master's degree
and 27 years of experience --will be $58,260.
The association has 429 members --teachers, counselors, school nurses and librarians.
* * *
The negotiations took three days and two evenings. "Everyone worked together to
resolve concerns and work within available district finances,'' Carla Fultz, a teacher and
the union's negotiations chairwoman, said in a written statement.
The contract is expected to cost the district an additional $610,000 in its first year,
Treasurer Dennis Menoski said. Assistant Superintendent Lewis Stemen said the
district went with a two-year agreement rather than three years mostly because of a new
state law that requires a school district to guarantee that enough money will be available
to pay raises for the length of the contract without, for example, a tax increase.
In May, voters turned down a 6.5-mill real-estate tax that would have been used in part to
staff two middle schools under construction and set to open in fall 2000. |
